Megathread Sonic Frontiers (2022) | MT | General Discussion (DO NOT discuss leaks here please)

[Shaddy Zaphod]

He looks too big.

[Blue Blood]

3 hours ago, KHCast said:

Someone I saw on Twitter made a gameplay mock up of how the game in action could look, with a hud screen and everything. What do you guys think?

Yeah, as Shaddy said he looks a bit oversized. But more to the point, I think it highlights how Sonic himself might clash with the environment if his textures don't see any enhancements. And it illustrstes that that screenshot haa nothing of any gameplay significance. I'll admit though that Sonic doesn't look quite as misplaced in the one mm scene with him from the trailer.  Guess we'll just have to wait and see how it actually works out. 

[BubbleButt TV]

just to echo what other people have said here, yeah I really want Sonic to be very animated in this game. I want him to feel alive. The last time I got that feeling was Generations in 2011.

 

as for the shorter spikes... well I'll just treat it as if Sonic got a haircut lol

[Sonikko]

 

I think these tweets may be relevant for Frontiers.

[BubbleButt TV]

maybe the Switch version could have a different artstyle? maybe something more simple and maybe cel-shaded?

or the switch version could be Cloud based like Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis (god that is a long name)

on the other hand... I feel like they would've said it by now if the Switch version was gonna be completely different.

I feel like most people would want the Switch version to be basically the same, but portable. Most Switch users are probably used to their versions just kinda being the inferior ports.

I do think the Switch trailer being the only one with "NOT FINAL GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE" is very telling that Frontiers is gonna have a bit of a shake up on that system

[Blue Blood]

Opting for an entirely different artstyle on Switch might be the best use of resources. It would would much cheaper than the cost to develop a completely separate game, and they wouldn't need to worry about preserving the visuals in any way. Have any other games ever opted for a completely different artstyle across different spec hardware whilst the rest of the game remains virtually the same? I'm sure someone pointed out at least one example to me before, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. 

The Switcg version of Frontiers is almost guaranteed to be woefully inferior to the rest. It was already the case with Forces, and that was only released across two Generations of hardware. Frontiers is going for a full three generations between the Series X/PS5, XB1/PS4 and NS. Something is going to have to give. 

[Razule]

I'm sure they exist, but I've only ever seen either the same game with lower quality graphics or different games with the same name on less powerful hardware.

 

[BubbleButt TV]

1 hour ago, Blue Blood said:

Have any other games ever opted for a completely different artstyle across different spec hardware whilst the rest of the game remains virtually the same? I'm sure someone pointed out at least one example to me before, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. 

as far as I'm aware, this has never been done

I imagine the switch version will be like this and just have details removed, lower framerate and maybe different character models

[Zoomzeta]

1 hour ago, Blue Blood said:

Opting for an entirely different artstyle on Switch might be the best use of resources. It would would much cheaper than the cost to develop a completely separate game, and they wouldn't need to worry about preserving the visuals in any way. Have any other games ever opted for a completely different artstyle across different spec hardware whilst the rest of the game remains virtually the same? I'm sure someone pointed out at least one example to me before, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. 

The Switcg version of Frontiers is almost guaranteed to be woefully inferior to the rest. It was already the case with Forces, and that was only released across two Generations of hardware. Frontiers is going for a full three generations between the Series X/PS5, XB1/PS4 and NS. Something is going to have to give. 

You must be referring to Crash 4. 

[Blue Blood]

8 minutes ago, Zoomzeta said:

You must be referring to Crash 4. 

No, not that. Crash 4 is lower fidelity in Switch, but the art style is the same. I'm talking about something that, for example, pushes realism on one platform and cel shading on another. 

[BubbleButt TV]

11 minutes ago, Zoomzeta said:

You must be referring to Crash 4. 

Crash 4 on switch does not have a different artstyle, it just has downgraded lighting

[Razule]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

No, not that. Crash 4 is lower fidelity in Switch, but the art style is the same. I'm talking about something that, for example, pushes realism on one platform and cel shading on another. 

That'd make the comparisons to another game a lot more apt.

[BubbleButt TV]

1 hour ago, Blue Blood said:

No, not that. Crash 4 is lower fidelity in Switch, but the art style is the same. I'm talking about something that, for example, pushes realism on one platform and cel shading on another. 

I'm trying to think of any other multi-platform game that has done this and I'm just drawing a blank

I'm looking at environments like the image above and kinda wondering how they could even translate this to a cel-shaded style

I feel like maybe this would require a completely separate team of artists to try and come up with concepts on how they could re-shape the world for another art style and I dunno if they are willing to spend time on that.

[Razule]

I don't know if this is enough info for it's topic, but it seems worth discussing. Apparently, SEGA's having people remove the story info because it's incorrect, and it also will be playable on next-gen consoles via backwards compatibility, not made for them. That answers the Switch concerns, I guess. And they keep officially leaking info they didn't want out yet.

[PickleBrows]

The moment the platforms were announced it was obvious this wasn't targeting the current gen consoles.

There's nothing to say the current gen versions won't receive resolution and frame rate boosts along with benefitting from running off of their SSDs. 

Sonic Forces was hardly pushing last gen's power so there's plenty of scope for Frontiers to still be visually stunning. 

EDIT: See Immortals: Fenyx Rising or the recently released Kena Bridge of Spirits running on a PS4 for example. They don't have the exact same style as the Frontiers trailer but I think they're a good indicator of how the game could look.

The Switch likewise was able to run a fairly decent version of Immortals via more distance fog, lower poly/removed assets and obviously cutting the frame rate. 

I'm not especially worried about the Switch's impact on the game for other platforms, but for those people who'll be playing it primarily on the Switch I'll be curious to see exactly what sacrifices the devs make for that version. I don't see them going for down the cloud-based route for this.

[CertifiedNobody]

22 minutes ago, Razule said:

I don't know if this is enough info for it's topic, but it seems worth discussing. Apparently, SEGA's having people remove the story info because it's incorrect, and it also will be playable on next-gen consoles via backwards compatibility, not made for them. That answers the Switch concerns, I guess. And they keep officially leaking info they didn't want out yet.

I'm completely fine with this as long as framerate doesn't suffer.

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Razule said:

I don't know if this is enough info for it's topic, but it seems worth discussing. Apparently, SEGA's having people remove the story info because it's incorrect, and it also will be playable on next-gen consoles via backwards compatibility, not made for them. That answers the Switch concerns, I guess. And they keep officially leaking info they didn't want out yet.

Not this fucking guy. TWIP's videos are all click-bait and full of his own guesswork that he peddles as confirmed facts. His previous video about "officially confirmed characters" with Lah in the thumbnail is the perfect example of this. She's not confirmed, and the character that he thinks is confirmed is some random woman named Sophia. His source? A Twitter post that looked at the source of the Japanese Frontiers website and said that there was leftover data from the Persona 5 website that has a page for a character called Sophia. Just don't watch his crap. Seriously. 

With regards to the actual news... I'm wondering where TSS heard that because I'm unable to find it mentioned literally anywhere else. Its not impossible, because the Colours Ultimate trailers listed the current gen platforms as well even though its not natively on either of them. But I'm just wondering where TSS got this from and if its correct. There have been games relessed natively across all current platforms from Switch to PS4/360 to PS5/XBX without the need for backwards compatibility. 

EDIT: And now TSS have updated the article again:

Quote

UPDATE: We have also removed reference to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions being backwards compatible versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This was originally included due to the way the logos were presented, but at this time we do not have any information regarding how SEGA will or will not differentiate these versions.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Yeah this one's on me. I saw the way the PS4 and PS5 logos were presented (with that line dividing the two) as historically meaning that the PS5 version would at minimum be backwards compatible. So I put that in without more sensibly clarifying that bit. I didn't think about this until a kind person at Era pointed out to me just now.

Sorry again folks.

[phobs]

I'm disappointed that there is no specific version for PS5 and Xbox Series. In such case, I'm hoping that there will be at least next-gen upgrade

[Red Hot Jack]

I want to speculate the cyber friends we will have to save. If we look at the trailer and Cyber Amy gives Sonic a pink power, I believe Sonic's friends will grant Sonic their power-ups, yeah it's copy and paste from the champions. But still, a great concept, go for it.

So if there are 4 islands as open zones like the concept leak says, we are going to save 4 friends. Let's say...

Tails = flight power

Knuckles = strenght power

Amy = healing power

Silver = psychic power

I also speculate it's not one giant world but 4 connected islands probably.

[FirePheonix]

8 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

I want to speculate the cyber friends we will have to save. If we look at the trailer and Cyber Amy gives Sonic a pink power, I believe Sonic's friends will grant Sonic their power-ups, yeah it's copy and paste from the champions. But still, a great concept, go for it.

So if there are 4 islands as open zones like the concept leak says, we are going to save 4 friends. Let's say...

Tails = flight power

Knuckles = strenght power

Amy = healing power

Silver = psychic power

I also speculate it's not one giant world but 4 connected islands probably.

Ok not even kidding that's a great idea, and if we don't have more playbale characters, this would be like a really good compensation.

[Slashy]

On 12/14/2021 at 10:51 AM, Blue Blood said:

Opting for an entirely different artstyle on Switch might be the best use of resources. It would would much cheaper than the cost to develop a completely separate game, and they wouldn't need to worry about preserving the visuals in any way. Have any other games ever opted for a completely different artstyle across different spec hardware whilst the rest of the game remains virtually the same? I'm sure someone pointed out at least one example to me before, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. 

The Switcg version of Frontiers is almost guaranteed to be woefully inferior to the rest. It was already the case with Forces, and that was only released across two Generations of hardware. Frontiers is going for a full three generations between the Series X/PS5, XB1/PS4 and NS. Something is going to have to give. 

Ghostbusters the game.

[ZinogreVolt]

15 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

I want to speculate the cyber friends we will have to save. If we look at the trailer and Cyber Amy gives Sonic a pink power, I believe Sonic's friends will grant Sonic their power-ups, yeah it's copy and paste from the champions. But still, a great concept, go for it.

So if there are 4 islands as open zones like the concept leak says, we are going to save 4 friends. Let's say...

Tails = flight power

Knuckles = strenght power

Amy = healing power

Silver = psychic power

I also speculate it's not one giant world but 4 connected islands probably.

Not sure if this is accidental or what, but this is only gonna end up drawing more Breath of the Wild comparisons.

Having to save ghost-like versions of our friends who then grant us powers related to flight, strength, and healing? Potentially by fighting off giant mechanical menaces that are terrorizing the land? Where have I heard this before?

That said, it is a fine idea.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

To be perfectly honest, this would actually be the game where they can allow for multiple playable characters rather than just spirits or the equivalent of it if they make this work.

[Iko]

15 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

I want to speculate the cyber friends we will have to save. If we look at the trailer and Cyber Amy gives Sonic a pink power, I believe Sonic's friends will grant Sonic their power-ups, yeah it's copy and paste from the champions. But still, a great concept, go for it.

So if there are 4 islands as open zones like the concept leak says, we are going to save 4 friends. Let's say...

Tails = flight power

Knuckles = strenght power

Amy = healing power

Silver = psychic power

I also speculate it's not one giant world but 4 connected islands probably.

Didn't Tails Adventure have something like this? I remember there were a couple of character abilities to be unlocked in the endgame or near the end.